Kim Agrees to Send Remains of US Soldiers Home

The New York Korean War Memorial is shown in New York's Battery Park, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

(Newser)
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Of the 35,000 Americans who died on the Korean peninsula during the Korean War, 7,700 have not been accounted for. Per Veterans of Foreign Wars estimates, the remains of as many as 5,300 could still be in North Korea. Now, as one of four key points President Trump and Kim Jong Un agreed to during their historic summit, those remains could be coming home, NPR reports. "The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified," says the statement released after Trump's summit with the North Korean leader.

The US and North Korea worked together to recover 229 sets of American remains between 1996 and 2005 during a thawing of relations between the two countries, Fox News reports. The VFW had asked Trump to raise the issue during negotiations. Families "want the remains of their sons back," Trump said. "They want the remains of their fathers, and mothers, and all of the people that got caught into that really brutal war, which took place, to a large extent, in North Korea. And I asked for it today, and we got it." He said that though he asked at the last minute, Kim agreed "so quickly" and was "so nice" about it: "He understands it. He understands it." (Read more Korean War stories.)